A blog for information on good indian movies with focus on parallel cinema.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Chidambaram -malayalam/tamil -1985

Ok little bit about the name.chidambaram actually is a holy place in tamil nadu, it has a shiva temple which houses the famous nataraja statue.The climax scene of the movie takes place in chidambaram.Even though the movie is supposedly a malayalam one.There are more dialog's in tamil than malayalam.

Considered G.Aravindan's best work.Chidambaram, Inspired from a short story by C. V. Sreeraman is a beautiful movie that throws so many questions regarding man woman relationship.

Shankaran works in the office of a cattle farm.An unmarried bachelor, he leads a lonely life.Muniyandi a laborer who manages cattle's in that farm, brings his new wife sivakami to the farm.Sivakami who comes from a sun baked remote village in tamil nadu is fascinated by the farm and its greenery.Sankaran and sivakami start having an illicit relationship, the consequences of that is the rest of the movie.

The movie does not do pages and pages of dialog's justifying the action of its lead characters.The dialog's are minimal and it is left to the viewer to decide everything about the characters.These characters are basically good people.But they break the rules set by the society and put so many moral questions to us.When the movie ends,it is not an end, that is exactly where you start constructing your version of the story.

There are lot of visuals in the movie which are metaphorical and has to be watched closely.vanaprastham fame Shaji N Karun was the cinematographer for this movie.The movie hardly has any BGM, probably 5 minutes in the whole movie.But it adds to the drama that unfolds in the movie.

Very good acting by everyone.Gopi,smita patil and sreenivasan.Nedumudi venu and innocent come in a guest role for few minutes.

Awards:

1985 National award for Best Film1985 Kerala state award for Best film and Director

****spoiler*****when muniyandi dies there is a scene where jacob says that he heard that he killed his wife also, suggesting that sivakami might already be dead.But in the end, shankaran sees sivakami.So did he really see her?.or was it a sign that he is becoming delusional?.If yes what is going to be his fate.If not, what are they going to do are they going to live together?.shankaran and shivakami living happily in chidambaram. can they forget the past?.what about poor muniyandi?.These are only very few ways by which you can expand the movie.The movie gives you an abundance of space to explore.**********